Bolshoi Theater to Undergo Major Reconstruction

By SOPHIA KISHKOVSKY

Published: March 5, 2005

The main building of the Bolshoi Theater will close on July 1 for long-anticipated reconstruction, the general director of the house, Anatoly Iksanov, said at a news conference on Friday.

''The state of the theater is life-threatening,'' Mr. Iksanov said. ''We can't wait any longer.''

No firm date for a grand reopening was given on Friday, but late last year Mr. Iksanov said it would be in 2008. The Bolshoi, which comprises both an opera company and a ballet company, will be leaving its historic home for the first time in 150 years.

Turmoil at the theater, political infighting and haggling over architectural plans and costs have delayed the project for years.

Yuri Melnikov, the deputy chief of the State Expertise Commission, which is overseeing the technical aspects of the project, said the cost of the project would not exceed $1 billion. Mr. Melnikov said the cost of the project would be comparable to those of similar projects around the world.

The work is supposed to bring the Bolshoi up to par with international stages like Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera by expanding and upgrading backstage facilities and storage space for sets, installing a transformable orchestra pit and enhancing patrons' comfort with improved cafes and toilets.

''Our dressing rooms, our backstage spaces, they don't measure up,'' said Aleksei Ratmansky, the ballet company's director. He expressed particular excitement at the prospect of new ballet floors, which will help prevent injuries to dancers.

Aleksandr Vedernikov, the Bolshoi's musical director and chief conductor, said the theater's original acoustics would be restored. They were deformed, he said, by a reconstruction in the 1950's that reconfigured the orchestra pit in a way that left today's most expensive seats with the worst acoustics and made it ''impossible to perform Wagner.''

Preservationists have been up in arms over possible changes to the building, and some have even said that no reconstruction is necessary.

But officials spoke in alarming terms of the state of the main building, which is a landmark in the heart of Moscow, just blocks from the Kremlin. Mr. Iksanov said this winter's weather alone had raised the theater's columns by several millimeters.

Mr. Melnikov said: ''For 15 years already the fire inspectors have been saying the theater should be closed. Fire safety can't be guaranteed. The foundations are from the mid-19th century. They're not on cement, and they're affected by the constant technical and weather changes, the freezing and thawing here.''

Nearby construction is also affecting the theater. Underground parking garages are being built under adjacent department stores and hotels as a solution to Moscow's traffic woes, but they're also raising the soil around the Bolshoi.

Architects said the answer to the theater's problems is to dig. Nikita Shangin, the chief architect of the reconstruction, said underground facilities, which are the crux of the project, would both strengthen the foundation and expand space.

The news conference took place in the theater's glittery new atrium annex, which was built adjacent to the theater as part of the first stage of reconstruction and looks like the lobby of a luxury hotel. It is next door to the new stage, which was opened last year and will accommodate most of the ballet troupe's repertory.

Ballets like ''Bolt,'' Mr. Ratmansky's revival of the 1930's ballet scored by Shostakovich and set in a Soviet factory, which had its premiere last month, are already being performed on the new stage. ''Spartacus'' and ''The Pharaoh's Daughter,'' which are too big for the space, Mr. Ratmansky said, will be performed on tour and elsewhere in Moscow, and maximum effort will be made not to cut the repertory or the size of the troupe.

The Bolshoi's sacred place in the Russian soul has touched a nerve at the Duma, the lower house of Russia's parliament, which is just steps away.

On Wednesday a plenary session of the Duma instructed its culture committee to look into ''The Children of Rosental,'' a new opera set to open at the Bolshoi, with libretto by the controversial postmodernist writer Vladimir Sorokin and score by the avant-garde composer Leonid Desyatnikov. The legislator behind the campaign deemed the opera pornography, even though he admitted he had never read any works by Mr. Sorokin, who has previously been the target of a youth group that supports President Vladimir V. Putin.

Mr. Iksanov was unfazed.

''I've sent him the text,'' he said. ''I hope he reads Sorokin for the first time.''

Photo: The Bolshoi Theater is expected to be closed until 2008, with many works to be performed next door. (Photo by Yola Monakhov for The New York Times)